# Whatcha Readin' Sept 2010 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117 "2010-08-31T12:33:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/61 "2010-09-08T12:12:52Z")
Yeah, I’d heard, and I’ll state now I have zero intention of ever seeing the movie, because there’s no way they can do justice to it in two hours. Similarly, I never saw _The Prestige_ because the construction of the book was such a marvel and a delight that I didn’t care to find out how they fucked it up in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/62 "2010-09-08T13:11:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > [@twickster](#): > > > > I’d put that on my top-ten-ever list > > From Wikipedia: “In 2009 it was announced that the Wachowski Brothers had bought the rights to the novel, and that writer/director Tom Tykwer would be working on a screenplay.” Can’t imagine it working as a movie. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/63 "2010-09-08T14:00:54Z")
I’m currently reading _Mockingjay_… and trying hard to keep from going online and spoiling the ending for myself. The audiobook is so slow! And I want to know what happens NOW! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/64 "2010-09-08T17:20:43Z")
I decided to quit Random Family and am now working on Life on Mars, by Mary Roach. I’ve really liked everything she’s done so far. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/65 "2010-09-08T21:25:41Z")
Fodor’s guide to Chicago spurred by reading on this board. I think it’s time to visit there again.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/66 "2010-09-08T22:26:31Z")
[\*\*John Dies at the End \*\*](http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/0312659148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283984545&sr=1-1)by David Wong. I enjoyed everything but the ending. Either I missed something or it just sort of stopped. (I added the link so that I can click through and buy something from my wish list with the board getting the click-through fee. That’s still in effect, right?) ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/67 "2010-09-08T23:00:26Z")
I’m, unfortunately, not reading anything right now. I just got a Kindle and am reading the sample to “The Most Powerful Idea in the World” and it seems pretty interesting, but I’m not ready to download it yet. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/68 "2010-09-08T23:38:04Z")
**Siam Sam** , what do you think of _The Girl Who Played With Fire_? I just finished it and am now starting _The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest_. I have to say that books like these aren’t usually my cup of tea but I am utterly hooked by all of it. The presentation is so very believable, and the fact that its set in Sweden is very interesting, especially given the moral asides ascribed to extra-marital affairs, bi-sexuality, etc. Its been a captivating ride that I cannot put down! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/69 "2010-09-09T01:42:47Z")
Update: _The Strain_ is not a good book. It is not well-written. It is, in a word, clunky. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/70 "2010-09-09T03:58:13Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > [\*\*John Dies at the End \*\*](http://www.amazon.com/John-Dies-End-David-Wong/dp/0312659148/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283984545&sr=1-1)by David Wong. I enjoyed everything but the ending. Either I missed something or it just sort of stopped… So, um, what happens at the end? If only the title gave a hint! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/71 "2010-09-09T04:25:38Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > **Siam Sam** , what do you think of _The Girl Who Played With Fire_? I just finished it and am now starting _The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest_. > > I have to say that books like these aren’t usually my cup of tea but I am utterly hooked by all of it. The presentation is so very believable, and the fact that its set in Sweden is very interesting, especially given the moral asides ascribed to extra-marital affairs, bi-sexuality, etc. Its been a captivating ride that I cannot put down! Enjoying it thoroughly. My reading time is somewhat limited, so I’ve only just finished Chapter 8. But I’ve passed the part where Mimmi labels Lisbeth an “entropic chaos factor,” a term that I’ve read was coined by the writer for Lisbeth and has created no end of confusion as to what exactly that is. 😃 The paperback version of the third part is available in Thailand already, and we have it. That’s pretty fast, as I understand the hardcover came out only in May? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/72 "2010-09-09T05:31:09Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I am reading \*The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) \*the third book in the series. So far I am enjoying it, but looking at the rest of the series, I worry that he may not intend to end it any time soon. I usually prefer series with a closed ending. Oh, dammit, now I feel stupid. Until reading through this thread again, it **never** occured to me that Nicholas Flamel was a real person. NOW people’s objections to the first Harry Potter book’s title change suddenly sound more reasonable. I could never figure out why it “made more sense” to call the book philosopher’s stone. Obviously I didn’t know there actually _was_ a thing called the philosopher’s stone outside the HP books, either. sigh. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/73 "2010-09-09T12:21:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > > > **Siam Sam** , what do you think of _The Girl Who Played With Fire_? I just finished it and am now starting _The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest_. > > > > I have to say that books like these aren’t usually my cup of tea but I am utterly hooked by all of it. The presentation is so very believable, and the fact that its set in Sweden is very interesting, especially given the moral asides ascribed to extra-marital affairs, bi-sexuality, etc. Its been a captivating ride that I cannot put down! > > Enjoying it thoroughly. My reading time is somewhat limited, so I’ve only just finished Chapter 8. But I’ve passed the part where Mimmi labels Lisbeth an “entropic chaos factor,” a term that I’ve read was coined by the writer for Lisbeth and has created no end of confusion as to what exactly that is. 😃 > > The paperback version of the third part is available in Thailand already, and we have it. That’s pretty fast, as I understand the hardcover came out only in May? Its just too bad that there won’t be any more of these books. Salander and Blomkvist are two serial characters that I could read about for awhile longer. Is it accurate that these books only saw the light of day posthumously because a relative read the manuscripts after Larsson died? If so that’s pretty amazing that he never intended these books to be published, because they are very good. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/74 "2010-09-09T14:11:13Z")
I really enjoyed _Remarkable Creatures_. It’s second now to _Falling Angels_ as my favorite of Chevalier’s books. Just starting _The Whole World_ by Emily Winslow. About three Cambridge students and one of them disappears. “An elegantly plotted mystery,” the blurb says. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/75 "2010-09-09T16:37:50Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Update: _The Strain_ is not a good book. It is not well-written. It is, in a word, clunky. Amen. I read two-thirds of it and couldn’t even finish it. I thought it read like a movie treatment instead of a real book, but that may just be my knowing that Del Toro is a movie director. I could easily believe this book was dictated over the phone to his co-writer. While he was surfing the Internet. And watching TV. And eating a sandwich. It’s that poorly written. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/76 "2010-09-09T21:36:12Z")
Yup. I said to my husband, “I’m pretty sure you or I could have written this better than this guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/77 "2010-09-10T01:20:26Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > > Enjoying it thoroughly. My reading time is somewhat limited, so I’ve only just finished Chapter 8. But I’ve passed the part where Mimmi labels Lisbeth an “entropic chaos factor,” a term that I’ve read was coined by the writer for Lisbeth and has created no end of confusion as to what exactly that is. 😃 > > > > The paperback version of the third part is available in Thailand already, and we have it. That’s pretty fast, as I understand the hardcover came out only in May? > > Its just too bad that there won’t be any more of these books. Salander and Blomkvist are two serial characters that I could read about for awhile longer. Is it accurate that these books only saw the light of day posthumously because a relative read the manuscripts after Larsson died? If so that’s pretty amazing that he never intended these books to be published, because they are very good. Sounds like he may be getting mixed up with Franz Kafka, whose relatives ignored his orders to burn his writings upon his death and published them anyway. His [Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson) says: **“At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death.”** I’ve read elsewhere that he did in fact turn them in to a publisher himself. His sudden death at age 50 was due to a heart attack. Rumor has it a contributing factor was stress from death threats stemming from his own investigative reporting, but that’s been denied. It is true that he had to live his last years in hiding due to the death threats, and that’s a major reason he never married his long-time girlfriend. Seems there’s some sort of law in Sweden that says your address must appear in the public record when you get married. Now there’s some sort of friction over his estate between her and his family. His entry also says: **“Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, now possessed by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which he intended to contain an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.”** The world did indeed lose a good writer. I feel Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist could easily have entered the world’s cultural lexicon like Holmes and Watson. May still. ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/78 "2010-09-10T14:50:20Z")
I picked up a copy of Ian Rankin’s **Doors Open** at Dulles Airport before a flight to San Francisco. Started and finished it during the flight - it’s that good. Better than the two Rebus books I’ve read. It’s a caper book, about a group of friends in Edinburgh - a retired software millionaire, a banker, and an art history professor - who team up with the local mob boss to steal a bunch of patents from the National Gallery’s overflow collection. Lots of twists and turns and pretty good reveal at the end. I’m now off to pick up **Cloud Atlas** for next week’s trip to SF, based on the comments in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/79 "2010-09-10T14:51:41Z")
I just started “Quicksilver” by Neal Stephenson. As God is my witness, I AM going to finish The Baroque Cycle by the end of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117/80 "2010-09-11T03:19:56Z")
FAIL:\*\* The Prince of Dreams (Seven Brothers, Book 2)\*\* by Curt Benjamin ~ this one felt rushed & scattered. I made it about halfway through before i realized that it was a mess. Maybe I’ll try it again one day. Completed: **The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia** by James Palmer ~ This guy was a sadistic lunatic. The book itself was pretty dry so I could only read it in small doses. **Lord of Snow and Shadows: Book One of The Tears of Artamon** by Sarah Ash ~ Ok fantasy but the Russian flavour kept me reading it. I’ll try the next one. **Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West** by Hampton Sides ~ Only part of the book covered Carson. The rest centered on the Navajo & the Mexican-American war BUT it was very good and covered a chunk of history I knew nothing about. **The Born Queen (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 4)** by Greg Keyes ~ I got worried there for a bit when the story got a bit loopy but it all turned out to my satisfaction. **Dragon Outcast (Age of Fire, Book 3)** by E.E. Knight ~ This time the story is from the POV of the third survivor of the dragon hatchlings. Not as good as the first two. **Faberge’s Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire** by Toby Faber ~ Apparently I had a Russian theme going on this month. This was an _awesome_ read. The book describes all the eggs that Faberge made for the czars to give to their wives on Easter. It then tracks the paths of the eggs as they disappeared and reappeared (most of them) after the death of the Imperial Family to present time. While reading this book I followed along with[this amazing website](http://www.mieks.com/faberge-en/eggs.htm) that has great photos of the eggs that still exist. **Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line** by Martha Sandweiss ~ A bit dry & repetitive in places but I think the author did the best she could with the information that was available. This is about [Clarence King](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_King), a white man, who posed as a black man and secretly married a black woman. Reading: Black Beauty: I was a horse crazy little girl and yet I’ve never read this. Roughing It: My first non-Tom Sawyer-related Mark Twain [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatcha-readin-sept-2010-edition/552117.md?page=5)